This document will be continuously updated to reflect the most current changes to the project. The main goal for the project is to strengthen the research capacity at UDC concentrating on the health programs (medical radiography, respiratory therapy, mortuary science, food and nutrition, and speech language pathology) in addition to nursing. This project targets junior faculty and undergraduate students enrolled in these programs at UDC, and member HBCUs of the United Negro College Fund (UNCF). As the lead institution, UDC will: (1) identify appropriate junior faculty for mentorship participation and establish critical research enhancement or development needs for faculty and students; (2) facilitate and encourage health related research that focus on health disparities and access to health care; (3) review and infuse all curricula with research components that facilitate the introduction and ability of student participation in research , and (4) establish conditions for longterm multidisciplinary collaborative projects and continued research building guided by the experienced researchers at Howard University. As the collaborating institution, Howard University will be responsible for coordinating the faculty research development and academic enrichment and career core components for this project. UDC has selected the following four RIMI core components for this project: 1. Faculty Research Development Core 2. Institutional Department Research Infrastructure Core 3. Academic Enrichment and Career Core 4. Administrative Core UDC will develop a goal to build the research capacity and capabilities of allied health faculty and undergraduate students at UDC through a collaborative effort emphasizing structured training, mentoring and research partnerships with HU's experienced researchers, and expanding research activities through "hands-on1' experiences in proposal development and submission for funding. In addition, the proposal aims to establish the basis for on-going partnerships in research activities that focus on health disparities and access to healthcare. The objectives are to: 1. Identify junior faculty at UDC in the Department of Nursing and Allied Health Sciences who are interested in conducting research and improving their research skills. 2. Develop a mentoring plan that will facilitate UDC faculty with developing research programs and competing successfully for grants, 3. Facilitate and ensure that UDC faculty scholars make scientific presentations and publish research papers. 4. Ensure that UDC faculty scholars complete at least one grant application. 5. Provide guidance to UDC scholars regarding the future of their research interest or projects. As the external evaluator for the RIMI Grant we prepared the following narrative and Exhibit 1 to describe the activities which were accomplished for year 2 of the project.